Saints Row: Mod Your Ride

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Dig the new customized wheels. Shots, info & movies.

By Douglass C. Perry

When we reach the end of August, you'll most likely have a copy of Saints Row for Xbox 360 in your hands. THQ and developer Volition want you to tear up the virtual city of Stilwater with a host of gangs that aren't just your run of the mill punks (although they do look a little rough around the edges at first). In this multi-part series, of which the second part runs today, IGN will peel back the layers of depth, customization and control you'll have with Saints Row.

In today's feature, we reveal Volition's deep vehicle customization (last we revealed character customization). In open-world games of this nature, gamers are constantly jacking cars, blowing them to bits, and jacking new cars. Cars are candy: a dime a dozen. You might like a particular vehicle over another one, but you may switch vehicles in a single mission three or four times. Volition's take on this scenario is to provide customization features to your favorite ride. Then, if the thing blows up -- and it inevitably will - you can buy it back from a car shop for a cheaper price than before. Kind of a cool deal. That way, you will always have the choice of driving your favorite set of wheels at any point.

Vehicle Customization/Modding has typically been reserved for racing games, and has had minimal impact on the open world genre. Saints Row is changing that, adding deep vehicle customization options that truly rival some of today's most popular racing franchises.

Spanking hot ride.

In Saints Row, you can take practically any vehicle in the game, including sports cars, trucks and low riders, drive over to the local "Rim Jobs" car mechanic and change it from a beater to a blinged out ride. Vehicle customization lets you add body kits (bumpers, hoods, window tints, mirrors, decals&#Array;), rims, paint jobs (body, rims color, trim&#Array;), and for the finishing touch, there are performance modifiers, including nitrous and hydraulics. So for all those fans that have always wanted to bump their minivan, now's your chance.

Unlike other open-world titles, one body model can take on multiple looks. You may see a standard looking sedan with beat-up rims and a crappy brown paint job parked on the street and the same sedan cruising the street with spinning rims, a retro rear bumper, an iridescent green paint job and fuzzy dice hanging from the rearview mirror. With loads of body types and thousands of customization options, there are countless cars driving the streets of Stilwater.

Some of the best news with Saints Row car customization is that all your time and hard earned money are no longer wasted when you destroy your ride. Everyone enjoys the thrill of speeding down the virtual freeway at 120 mph, or purposely driving you car into a local gas pump, but it usually results in an overturned wreck. In Saints Row, when your pimped out ride is destroyed, all you have to do is go to the mechanic and buy it back. You'll be back on the streets in no time.

Check back with IGN in the upcoming weeks for regular updates on Saints Row.